Friday, May 31, 2013

A Fistful of Reads: May Edition

Another month is through. We're almost halfway through the year, and I'm five more books down. My goal was 30 books this year and I've currently read through 19 books! You can catch the previous entries in this series here. This was a mixed bag month. I read through some great books and some pretty awful ones, which is a shame. I don't like reading bad books, and yet again it breaks up the constant stream of praise for once.

It is kind of fun to tear something apart; right?

At the bottom of the totem-pole is a early 1900's biography written by Albert Elmer Hancock. I've found John Keats to be one of history's most interesting people for the majority of my youth and into my adulthood. His poetry is beautiful, but it is his life and the tragedy that surrounded him that was the most compelling and continues to fascinate me. Despite this fact, I often steer clear of biographies because they can be rather dull. The promise of a literary biography had me excited, but the fact remains that Hancock's attempt at telling the 'story' of Keats' life reads about as dry as dirt and offers almost zero insight into the man himself. Instead, he merely gives us his own interpretations of Keats' poems and tells us about the critical response to his work. I'm sorry, but that is not what I signed up for!

Next we have Crichton's novel 'Disclosure'.

As a young reader, Michael Crichton was my first taste of
adult fare. I was eight when I read
‘Jurassic Park’ (or there abouts) and I went right into ‘The Andromeda Strain’
and then ‘Congo’ and then ‘Sphere’ and so on.
My father would read them ahead of me, marking out all the curse words
and leaving me with hallowed out paragraphs, but it didn’t matter. I loved reading these deeply structured
science fiction novels that spouted off jargon I couldn’t understand and
featured dinosaurs ripping people to pieces.
It was exciting. In my adulthood,
I’ve pretty much abandoned Crichton’s novels.
The last novel of his I read was ‘Timeline’, when I was seventeen, and I
realized that what was once exciting and challenging in my youth has become
somewhat cringe-worthy in my adulthood.

Crichton’s novels, while certainly not directed at young
adults (what, with all the sex, violence and language) are written like they
are.

My issue with ‘Disclosure’, and really most of Crichton’s
work, is that he wrote in a very childish way, especially when he was mapping
out sections of dialog. These characters
talk in a very ridiculous way and fail to communicate in a productive manner. Let’s forego the fact that Crichton likes to
talk circles around the reader’s head with his techno-babble. I’m talking about the way his characters say
hello to one another. In ‘Disclosure’ we
have a character named Max who speaks in such a way I wanted to punch him in
the face every time he was on the page.
There is nothing wrong with giving your characters a personality. I encourage that. There is even place in these stories for
characters who are annoying, but there is a limit. Then we have the relationship with Tom and
his wife and that ridiculous obscenity laced lunch conversation about the
harassment issue. Who talks to each
other like that? Is that normal? I’m sorry, I fight with my wife a lot, but if
we even had a scream fit like that, especially in public, I think I’d be filing
for divorce. I’m not sure if Crichton
was trying to make it melodramatic or something, but it left all believability
at that point.

Regardless of my problems with Crichton’s writing style
itself, it shouldn’t be ignored that Crichton writes books that are easy to
read. Yes, despite the paragraphs bogged
down by technical phrased and descriptions that no one understands, his books
are breezy reads. ‘Disclosure’ took me
two days to read. Once I got to page 150
or so the book just took off in my hands and I found myself pulled into the
story deeper and deeper, mostly because I really wanted to see how this was
going to pan out. I was interested. The story being told was intriguing and the
twists that Crichton worked in were compelling.
I found his constant dissection of Tom’s thinking process to be
annoying, if we’re going to be honest.
The fact that Michael kept TELLING US OVER AND OVER that Tom was trying
so hard to think back about what he had forgotten became redundant and made Tom
appear stupid in parts because it was so obvious. I mean, how he forgot about a certain
incident between he and Meredith was kind of ridiculous.

You don’t forget something like that.

But, I regress, I think the biggest issue with a book like
‘Disclosure’ is that it ultimately comes across extremely sexist and doesn’t
ever develop the themes it is trying to develop, at least not in a direct
sense. There is certain talk about
equality, but it is done in such an overbearing way (I mean, it comes up in
nearly EVERY conversation, which makes no sense and feels staged) that it fails
to really make an impact. The actions of
the primary woman are despicable, and the actions of the men in her corner are
just as despicable, making their particular stance on equality corrupt.

It almost feels like a book against equality.

So, yeah, this isn’t very good despite being very readable,
if that makes any sense.

We can escape the poor books and cross over into the better ones now!

I mentioned this earlier this month, but Scarlett Johansson is looking to make her directorial debut in the adaptation of Truman Capote's long lost 'Summer Crossing', and I mentioned in that very post that I was going to order that book and dive in.

I did.

‘Summer Crossing’ is a slight work in that it feels
unfinished. It is brief and
underdeveloped and yet rich with ambiguous backstory that feels fresh and
enlightening. Despite wanting so much
more upon reading those final words (“she said, “I know.”) I was wholly
satisfied with the way that Capote developed so much without saying very much
at all. The burgeoning love story
purposefully pulled back into feeling nearly skeletal and allowing us to
develop for ourselves the way we want to see things was astonishing, and
Grady’s layering and un-layering felt so raw and emotionally stirring.

I personally cannot wait to see how this is adapted, because
if offers so much room for interpretation and embellishment.

And then I'm back into Nesbo territory. I haven't read a Nesbo novel since my very first entry, but I've been dying to go back. He's such a tremendously talented writer who spins such intricate tales of murder and suspense.

I wish that I had read these in order. I started with ‘The Snowman’ and was hooked
enough to plow through ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Phantom’ in one month’s time. I just finished ‘The Redeemer’, which comes
right before ‘The Snowman’ and now I’m left with answers to questions I haven’t
asked yet and yet I’m still compelled to swallow up everything that came before
all that I already know!

My god, Jo Nesbo can write!

What has impressed me with all of the Harry Hole novels so
far is that Nesbo has the amazing way of weaving so many plot points together
that you are literally second guessing everything you think you know from
beginning to end. There are so many
viable answers to the questions being asked and Nesbo articulates each reveal
in the perfect way so as to keep you completely absorbed in every page. He never gives away too much and keeps the
loose ends visible so that we are contemplating all the potential answers with
this intense interest. ‘The Redeemer’
plays into this hand so well.

But the best book I read this month was not 'The Redeemer', although it was close. The best book I read this month was a pretty breezy and quick read and yet considerably provocative (in so many ways) and like 'Summer Crossing', it was my first brush with this particular author.

I'm talking about Don DeLillo's 'Cosmopolis'.

“When he woke up, he didn’t know what he wanted. Then he knew.
He wanted to get a haircut.”

How perfect a setup is that?
I mean, it sounds so vague and almost meaningless and yet it brilliantly
captures the whole vivid meaning behind Don DeLillo’s tightly focused novel,
‘Cosmopolis’. In taking a singular act,
an act of seemingly no consequence and adding layer after layer of depth and
consequence, DeLillo has sculpted for the reader a look at human society deeply
rooted in self-centered apathy.

And death, a human society deeply rooted in death.

Don DeLillo is an author I’ve wanted, for years, to get
into. I’ve read wonderful things about
his novels, but their girth always feels so daunting. ‘Underworld’ in particular, which has
garnered the bulk of his praise, looks so hard to get through. After reading ‘Cosmopolis’ (one of his
shorter, more concise novels), I feel as though I can break into his weightier
material. While his tone is certainly
distanced, almost cold, he has a way with words that completely draw me
in. This took me two days to read, two
sittings. Now I completely understand
those who say this takes longer to stomach in full, because the bleak outlining
of every word can be almost overwhelming, but I found the brutal honesty so
enriching, so compelling.

It also didn’t hurt that I had previously seen the film
adaptation, and so as I read DeLillo’s words I was transported to a visual
state where these words and actions had a more impactful meaning.

The prose simply follows a young billionaire as he ventures
out in his limousine to get a haircut.
The President is in town, the roads are blocked severely by security,
and his trip to the barber is an all-day event filled with routine doctor
visits, speculation with employees, meaningful talks, rendezvous with lovers,
meals with his wife and gunfire, mostly contained in the vicinity of his
limousine. Eric’s apathetic approach to
his life, his responsibilities and those who run in his circle is apparent from
the outset, but as death looms in the air (in many shapes, sizes and shades)
his outlook on life and reflection on his own viewpoint is brought into a more
luminous light. By the time the story
concludes, we see a true arc in this man and are given a chance for
self-reflection.

There is an honesty to the proceedings that outshine the
story’s obvious outlandishness. The
whole prose is larger than life so-to-speak, and yet it is grounded in
something earnest and true. I absolutely
loved this, and reading the rich dialog and reflective conversation only helped
me appreciate the film all the more.
They are perfect companion pieces that I highly recommend!

So that's all for this month. I'm thinking about taking next month's entry to grade and rank my reads for the year so far (since we love lists so much). It will give me a chance to really take my time and savor my current read; 'Winter's Tale'. It's a HUGE book and I don't want to feel rushed to finish it quickly. I should have it finished by the end of the month, but who knows (busy, busy, busy).

2 comments:

Nice month of reads. The only thing I got to was The Great Gatsby. Of course, I watched 70 films (a new personal best), and I've been watching the NBA Playoffs and the French Open. They really cut into reading time.

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